


Whatever, Forever

by orphan_account



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, Misunderstandings, Prompt Response, Romance, Science Fiction, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 19:18:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15735732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Every Kree had one, a little message at the end of the day, something their soulmate had said during the day. For their kind, where family, love, and friendship fell to the wayside in favor of their goals; it was never mentionedPrompt fill!





	Whatever, Forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [agentmmayy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentmmayy/gifts).



> Prompt fill for AgentMmayy!

“You’re a terrible cook?” Mar-Vam sounded confused, yet supremely delighted as she read out the words.

Sinara couldn’t resist rolling her eyes at her friend’s excitement.

Mar-Vam had gotten her first message three years ago while they were sitting in the mess hall; and ever since the nightly discussion of the message she got had become an annoyance virtually scheduled into Sinara’s day. When the others started getting their marks, the conversations got longer and longer as everyone in their dormitory tried to figure out who their soulmate was.

Sinara thought the whole idea was bullshit. How could anyone be expected to find the love of their life just by reading the phrase that appeared on their wrist every night? Apparently, it was something they’d said that day, but honestly, imagine the number of conversations that would require having!

_Fucking stupid, if you ask me. If it meant anything, the universe would pick a more concrete means of letting me know._

Sinara was even more annoyed by it when she got her first message. It appeared one night when she was in the dormitory bathroom, washing up before bed. The tickle on the underside of her wrist was gentle enough, like a fly or stray hair had landed there.

She flipped her wrist over, hoping to shake it loose.

 _You’re a terrible cook_ were the words scrawled over the skin there, rippling over the crescent-shaped scar from an incident in training last year.

“You’re a terrible cook?” Mar-Vam repeated. “Bar-Al, look at this! Ten bucks says this guy’s some rich-off-his-ass bastard in one of the big cities.”

“So, exactly like you? How do you know it’s a guy anyway?”

“The only person Sinara’s ever looked at twice was that prince who visited two years ago, sometimes I wonder if she’s even _alive._ ”

Sinara walked away, leaving them to discuss her future amongst themselves. None of it would ever make any difference to her.

 

*

 

Most people like him didn’t believe the story, and maybe he was wrong to believe them as strongly as he did.

Kasius remembered the uproar at the dinner table when Faulnak asked his mother what the words on his wrist meant.

Kasius had been only ten at the time, but it had been the only time he’d seen his father truly lose patience with his elder brother. Taryan had been quiet for such a long time before demanding what the hell Faulnak was on about in a voice soft, but dangerously angry.

When Faulnak repeated himself, Taryan erupted, shouting reprimands at his son and wife so loudly Kasius worried the roof might come down.

Later, his mother explained it to him as she tucked him into bed. Every Kree had one, a little message at the end of the day, something their soulmate had said during the day. For their kind, where family, love, and friendship fell to the wayside in favor of their goals; it was never mentioned.

Still, Kasius was privately elated the first time he got a message. He had been seventeen, four years older than Faulnak had been when he got his first.

It just said; _Shut the hell up._

Still, from that day forward, he kept a carefully organized list of all the messages he received in a small notebook, easy enough to hide from his father.

But as long as the messages kept coming, he never could stop imagining that someone was out there, sending them inadvertently. And one day, they would have a spectacular love story.

 

*

 

_I’m in love with you._

It was the most unnerving of the messages Sinara had gotten in the last four years, even if she knew it wasn’t directed at her.

Mar-Vam, on the other hand, was utterly distraught by the message. She was always asking Sinara what hers had said and today was no different, Sinara was shocked that there weren’t taboos against such invasions of privacy.

“Oh, Sinara!” She cried, pushing Sinara’s arm back to her side of the small transporter. “You must be devastated.”

“You must know I’m not.”

“But he’s talking to someone else.”

 _“He’s_ a highly emotional person,” Sinara said, talking more about Mar-Vam than her soulmate. Though, it was true of both, after four years of seeing his words every day, his ways of speaking were as familiar as this patrol circuit over the city. And the one thing she knew for sure about him was that he was the most dramatic person in the galaxy.

“You have to find him, and stop this nonsense, here I’ll help you! Let’s start writing this down!”

“No.”

“Sinara, listen to me, you absolutely cannot—”

Fortunately, Sinara was spared the rest of the conversation. Unfortunately, it was because their transport was blown out of the sky.

 

*

 

With a war on, Kasius had considerably less time to spend on anything but councils, and errands, and hiding in the air-raid bunker. Most of his peers had been sent away to outposts all over the system, even Faulnak had been sent away, despite his status as the successor.

Kasius wasn’t sure what the worst part was; the razor-like stares dignitaries shot him in the hallway for not doing his part or the thought that his orders were coming any day now.

He stood in his room, staring out over the city. The skyline was hazy and smoky after a lengthy battle over the city. The once-glittering skyline had gone dark, a candle extinguished by the breath of battle. The city was lit by moonlight and searchlights, soldiers looking for survivors or enemies hiding in the ruins. The rubble was piled in the streets creating narrow passageways through the wreckage of the lower city. An oil fire was still blazing along the edge of the sea at the bottom of the hill, too far from him to lend much light to the scene.

And yet, Taryan insisted they were days from winning the war.

As he stared, he felt the familiar tickle against his wrist; the arrival of his message. He pushed his sleeve back, tired, reluctant to give himself another thing to think about.

_Is Mar-Vam dead?_

Kasius frowned at the words, they felt familiar. For some reason jogging a memory of the soldiers' hospital wing he’d visited that morning; a quiet, flat voice that traveled in the dead silence of the wing.

 

*

 

Everyone thought Commander Kasius was woefully incompetent. It was abundantly clear that he’d never used a weapon in his life. The first day on the transport to their new posting, Sinara had spotted him in the training area with a few others. 

The embarrassing display had been talked about for weeks.

Sinara stayed out of it. She remembered him from when he visited their military compound years back, he was the one Mar-Vam had spent years teasing her about for no damn reason. Too bad she’d never see this circus passing as a military operation just because the Commander was the son of an emperor.

Though, she suspected the circus had less to do with Kasius and more to do with the three dull-as-rocks generals who followed him everywhere, spouting Taryan’s wishes.

Kasius himself seemed almost half-reasonable. So, when her dormitory mates had fallen asleep, she stepped into her shoes and crept out of the room. It was a short walk up three flights of stairs to the superior officers’ quarters, then down the hall until she came to the door bearing the correct name.

She rang the doorbell, already rehearsing her introduction in her head.

But, the Commander answered the door, dressed for bed, he already knew her. “Sinara?”

Sinara blinked at him in surprise. “What?”

“You’re second in command for my second division and more than notably talented.”  He said in the way of explanation.

Something about his words seemed intimately familiar, though she couldn’t place who or what he reminded her of. The thought itched a the back of her mind, but she was saved the aggravation of considering it when he continued.  

“What can I do for you?”

“Can we talk?”

 

*

 

 _Can we talk?_ Was written across Kasius’s wrist in the customary tight, elegant cursive lettering. Again giving him pause; it was a typical turn of phrase, but that soldier with admirable nerve had said the same to him, not an hour ago!

He’d had a few disappointed hopes; peers and lovers he’d had in the capital, people like him. And however skilled she was, someone like Sinara simply couldn’t be. Looking past the scars on her face, he supposed she was pretty, but beyond that, nothing worth getting excited over.

 

*

 

Later, Sinara found her name scrawled over her arm followed by a question mark. Sure, only one or two people had mentioned her by name over the course of the day, but it was hardly a unique name.

Still, it occurred to her that Kasius spoke in her soulmate’s voice.

 

*

 

 _Get some rest._ The mark stared up at Kasius as he studied it, a serendipitous reminder of the last thing Sinara had said to him after helping patch him up.

The girl in question was fast asleep next to him on the medical cot, propped against the wall in the back of the escape ship she’d stolen. The bandage she’d put on the wound to her thigh was already beginning to soak through. Meanwhile, the stitching she’d done to the wound on his chest had stopped his bleeding altogether.

He felt a little guilty about that. But he was reluctant to disrupt her; he hadn’t previously thought that Sinara was capable of looking relaxed. But she did when she was asleep. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, curled from being in its customary braid, and she wore her non-combat uniform.

Either way, he wasn’t sure she’d wake up if he tried.

The attack had happened in the middle of the night. It had been unexpected and decimated three-quarters of their troops before they could organize a solution. It had given Sinara very little time to act, but she hadn’t let him die. He thought he might love her a bit for that.

Kasius retrieved an extra bandage and held it over the one on her leg; stuck between praying they got to Hala before she bled out and praying they never got there at all.

 

*

“A life spent, a life earned.” Kasius offered, glancing up at her from the papers on his desk. “Sounds quite thrilling doesn’t it?”

Sinara offered a smile in return, inclining her head. Kasius rarely needed spoken input into his ideas; so this made up a good portion of their relationship.

“I’ll issue a statement for the Terrans, then I doubt they’ll be giving us more trouble.”

“Good.” Sinara was getting tired of trouble. Terrans always causing a stir over food or water or money, in their first year on the Lighthouse, such riots had been a weekly event.

Last week, one of them had managed to set off an explosive. She and two other guards had been injured, and the ceiling on one of the Kree levels had partially caved in.

Kasius eyed her injured shoulder as he spoke about his new plan to have the Terrans deal with each other, so to speak. He had been furious with the Terrans. He had paced about the medical ward for hours, switching between ranting and demanding updates from the doctor. She’d sat through it all, intermittently assuring him that she was fine.

If she’d been someone else, she might’ve described it as sweet. But such things were foolish to say, he was just supposed to care about her.

After all, he was her ‘soulmate.’

It wasn’t something she could pass off, after spending years barely leaving his side, hearing every word he said. So many coincidences were simply too improbable to bother denying it.

“Sinara?”

Her attention snapped back to the room in front of her. Kasius was staring at her with concern.

“You’re not even listening! What is it? Your shoulder again? I do so wish you’d let the doctor check it more often if you’re in pain.”

Kasius’s kind didn’t speak of soulmates, it was far too dangerous to their marriage prospects and the like. The notion was so discredited among the upper crust, she doubted Kasius thought twice about it.

And she’d give him no reason to. But occasionally he seemed determined to make it damn hard not to love him.

 

*

Despite the obscenely late hour, Kasius couldn’t sleep.

Sinara was curled against him, her head tucked against his shoulder, breath tickling against his neck. He traced patterns of circles and lines along the exposed skin of her back trying as hard as he could to devote his focus to the task.

And failing, rather miserably.

One of her arms was slung over his stomach, turned slightly exposing words written on her wrist. It was far from the first time he’d seen them, far from the first time she’d stayed over.

The words read. _Would you bring the new samples to Level 35?_

It was markedly more specific than his ever were. Today, his read; Oh, yes.

And more alarming, they were words he was sure he’d heard Hek-Sel say to some other Watch member that afternoon.

It hurt worse than he expected. He’d never been so hopelessly in love with someone as he was with Sinara. He hadn’t wanted to be, maybe, or expected to be, but sometime over the past seven years it happened, and he was completely gone over her. And sometimes, he thought, or imagined, maybe, that she felt the same.

Sinara stirred, pulling her arm back against him so he could no longer see the words. “Why are you still awake?”

“Suppose I’m not tired yet.”

She shifted again to look up at him. “I’ve seen you sleep after sex while we were nearly under siege. What is it?”

He kissed her instead of answering, and she didn’t seem to mind.

 

*

Sinara didn’t realize how dependent she’d become on the idea of Kasius being her soulmate, maybe because it meant he was supposed to care. Clearly, it wasn’t worth anything.

I’m sure you’ll provide us with a great spectacle.

The words on her wrist were mocking her, prying open the chasm in her chest wider and wider by inches. He had gotten his spectacle all right since all the Terrans had gotten away. Unfortunately for him, she’d survived too.

She paced the hallway, hoping to avoid the others until they had need of her for something or another.

_Soulmate? Some soulmate she had._

 

*

 

“I said this.” Sinara murmured, pulling him back to consciousness.

He’d been half asleep, half busy thanking all the stars in the sky that Sinara had let him anywhere near her again after the fight-to-the-death.

“What?”

She tapped the inside of his wrist, this time twisting in his arms to face him as she spoke.  “ _You did this for me?_ I said it.”

Kasius suddenly wasn’t very tired anymore; he sat upright, the sheet falling to his waist. “What?”

“And you said this,” Sinara held her arm out for him to see. _And in the front_ , was written across hers.

“Oh,” Was all he could manage for a moment. “What about Hek-Sel?”

Sinara sat up as well look completely baffled. “What about him?”

“‘ _Would you bring the new samples to Level 35_?’ it was on your wrist once, and I heard him,”

Sinara frowned at him. “That was nearly four years ago, you’ve never seen another one?”

“Well, before it yes, but I didn’t want to --”

Sinara kissed him, one arm winding around his neck.

He pulled back, a bit breathless. “What if you’re wrong?”

“Does it matter? You’ve come this far not knowing.”

“Well, I don’t need to universe’s permission to,” Kasius hesitated, it occurred to him that it wasn’t the most tactful track to take at the moment. “I suppose it doesn’t. I don’t believe I could stop loving you.”

Sinara narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re absurd.”

Kasius smiled at that, leaning his forehead against hers. _Goodness knows Sinara would never, under any circumstances be that sentimental._ “But you love me,”

Sinara only continued to glare at his teasing.

“Right?”

She kissed him which was as good an answer as any.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> ~sinara_smith


End file.
